Her voice sounded soft and shaky. She took deep breaths. She cried. She even chuckled a few times when she thought back to the joy her husband and son brought her. Three months after she lost them, Meg Slezak of Wilmer, Alabama, wants to tell her story.

He was tall, dark and loving. They met in college, where he went on a two-year mission trip. He tended to wear a beard. Michael Slezak earned a Master’s degree in mathematics. They married in 2006. They bought a farm in Wilmer — bison, chickens, alpaca and peacocks. They started raising a family — four girls and a boy. Michael was born to be a teacher, and becoming a teacher and a baseball coach at Semmes Middle School was a perfect fit. Meg stayed busy as a traveling radiology technician.

He was the second-youngest of five. He was a Slezak, alright. Blonde hair and blue eyes like his mother, a love of adventure and the outdoors like his father. Seven-year-old Hunter Slezak loved soccer, baseball and football. He loved Pokemon cards and running in the wind. “Hunter wanted to be a policeman or a fireman when he grew up,” Meg Slezak told me.

“He once saw a young, muscular man without a shirt, and for months Hunter would lift weights, trying to build muscles,” said Meg, chuckling softly.

Oh, how Hunter Slezak loved hugs. A second-grader at Tanner Williams Elementary School in Wilmer. Hunter had a kind heart. “He loved to bring people flowers,” said Meg. “Of course, he would always include a hug.”

He was Hunter the Hugger.

The sun had yet to rise on November 29, 2024. It was the day after Thanksgiving- the day the Slezaks gathered to give thanks for their wonderful lives, dressed in orange and posed for a family picture.

While Meg was getting ready for work, Hunter was bouncing off the walls. He was about to go on his first shrimping adventure. Dad Michael made sure food, water and life preservers were in tow. “Michael liked to spend some alone time with each of our children,” Meg told me. “That day was Hunter’s day.”

They were about to step out the door, on their way to Pelican Bay at Dauphin Island, Alabama. They would be headed toward the boat owned by 69-year-old Sam “Ollie” Wooley, a longtime shrimp boat captain who was a Vietnam Navy veteran.

“Both Michael and Hunter gave me a hug,” said Meg. “For some reason, Hunter turned around when he got to the door. He walked back to me and gave me another hug,” added Meg.

Hunter said, “I love you.”

Meg said, “I love you, too.”

November 29, a Friday, moved along. At 1 pm, Meg’s cell phone pinged — it was her husband contacting her. Meg looked down at her phone and read the three-word text: “I love you”.

“It was about 4 p.m., and I called Michael,” Meg told me. “There was no answer. I called Sam Wooley’s wife Marty, and she hadn’t heard from her husband, either.”

The authorities were called. The indescribable pain was about to arrive.

Meg Slezak’s heart raced as she drove south to Dauphin Island. She had grabbed some food and blankets before she made the one-hour drive. Her 16-year-old daughter, Brooklynn, and 14-year-old daughter, Christa, would stay home in Wilmer — they would be in charge of watching over the younger daughters, 10-year-old Zarina and 4-year-old Gracee.

Forty-year-old Meg Slezak resisted thoughts that her 41-year-old husband and her 7-year-old son could be missing.

The Dauphin Island air turned cold as the sun set. Meg Slezak paced on shore, the whirring of helicopters, the humming of boats and ATV’s surrounding her. “I didn’t sleep a wink,” said Meg. “I was distraught. I couldn’t make myself eat.

“The thoughts of my husband and 7-year-old son struggling in the water made me sick. I prayed they were alive.”

By the next morning, November 30, a massive search effort was underway.

The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard, the United Cajun Navy, Daphne Search and Rescue as well as other agencies had joined. Friends and strangers in boats and ATVs and cars and trucks searched by land, sea and air. And the news the search brought devasted two families.

It was about 9 miles south of Dauphin Island where the debris field was found. The authorities delivered the news to the families: The bodies of Michael Slezak and Sam Wooley had been found. And in the midst of that pain came the news that tore Meg’s heart apart: The body of her 7-year-old son Hunter had not been found.

Meg Slezak sobbed at the water’s edge, as she wasn’t about to leave until they found her son. “I stayed on the shore for 3 days without food or sleep,” said Meg. “I lost 25 pounds, and I was frantic. I had held out some hope when the choppers went up that first day, but the following day when they found Michael, I knew in my heart that Hunter was gone, too. But I stayed and prayed and hoped for a miracle.”

Somehow, Meg had to find the strength to get back to her daughters.

“I wondered how I was going to break the news to my daughters, but they had learned about it from the TV news,” said Meg. She cried and shook driving up Highway 98 to Wilmer. Meg Slezak was too shaken to ask God, “Why?” She arrived home and collapsed on the couch with her 4 daughters.

“It was heartbreaking — one of my daughters wouldn’t come out of the bathroom,” said Meg.

In the weeks that followed the darkest day of Meg Slezak’s life, dedicated men and women continued to search for Hunter. Meg drove back and forth from Wilmer to Dauphin Island. Family, friends and strangers reached out, but Meg couldn’t have closure until her son’s body was found. “We were all devastated,” Meg said. “Searchers found a large part of the boat, but Hunter was not found. I kept thinking of this little boy struggling in the water. I just couldn’t cope with imagining Hunter in his final moments.”

It was 16 days after the search began. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office officially called off the search on Dec. 15, 2024. Some organizations and volunteers continued searching for Hunter without success.

Meg Slezak had lost her husband and son, and her life turned to chaos.

“I had to sell many of our farm animals,” Megan told me. “Without my husband, it was too much for me seeing how I was working and caring for my four daughters. Brooklynn, Christa, Zarina and Gracee did their best to cope, but many times I would receive calls from school and be told that one of my daughters was found in a corner of a room sobbing.”

It’s been just over three months, and seeing how Hunter’s body was never found, Meg Slezak will never have closure.

“It’s an absolute horrible feeling knowing that this little body is out there somewhere,” said Meg. “I have to not think about it so I can function and do what I need to do to take care of my girls.”

Today, taking care of the girls means surrounding them with family, friends and loved ones. “The community has been amazing,” said Meg. “People continue to stop by and bring food — so many people are reaching out.”

Even Hunter’s grade school classmates are helping Meg’s heart mend: “One student addressed a Candy Gram to Heaven in hopes that Hunter would receive it,” said Meg. “We had snow a few weeks back, and a student named Audrey Parker went to Hunter’s gravesite and built a snowman in Hunter’s honor.”

The minutes tick by slowly for Meg Slezak. She is doing her best to hold her daughters tight. “We hug a little more these days,” said Meg. “I have put all sorts of pictures of Michael and Hunter around the house. I have had paintings of them done, and I have had quilts made from their clothes.”

While Meg surrounds herself with memories, her days continue to bring pain. “I don’t like to drive over water because every time I see water it’s a punch to the chest,” Meg told me.

As her days crawl by, she is reminded how much Michael and Hunter were loved. “My father and my brother-in-law bought a boat a few weeks ago,” said Meg. “They take the boat out in the bay almost every day hoping they can find Hunter’s body.”

Meg is trying her best to live through her new normal, and she wants us to know what she has learned after losing her tall, dark, loving husband and her sweet son who loved running in the wind. “You never know when your life will be up,” whispered Meg. “Everyone has their time to go to Heaven, and I believe that God wanted them back. Now, I need to do right in the world to make sure that I will be worthy of joining them.”

Until that day arrives, Meg Slezak will forge on.

If only she could see her husband’s smile as he walked out the door.

If only she could feel Hunter’s hugs again.

Rick Karle, who writes a weekly ‘Good News’ story, is a 25-time Emmy winner and a 43-year veteran of broadcast news who has lived and worked in Alabama for 35 years. You can find his work on Facebook at Rick Karle Good News. Send your story suggestions to: [email protected]